The Heavenly Bank

The legend of Doctor Faustus unambiguously alludes to the Armenian plateau. The very location of Eden at the source of the Tigris and Euphrates is sufficient evidence by itself. “The description of Eden which has reached our times has been precise in one regard … and by recognizing Armenia’s palm of supremacy we shall merely take a step towards another truth”, wrote Thomas Mann in Joseph and His Brothers. Historians have long been holding common opinion concerning the location of paradise, but the identification of the two water-ways (Fison and Gikhon), which have their source near Eden, is still a subject of much controversy. Most of them are inclined to think that these water-ways are the rivers Araks and Galis that flow accordingly into the Caspian and the Black Sea. Such opinion is supported by the evidence that the Armenians had celebrated their heavenly Araks for centuries. The river heads are on the territory of historical Armenia. Today the riverbed of the Araks River determines the boundaries of the four regional countries and is best traced at Meghri Gorge on the Armenian-Iranian border.